The city of El Paso is looking at possibly ending a $1.3-million contract with a prisoner transport service in the wake of last year's fatal police shooting of a handcuffed man outside the Downtown Jail.

City documents in advance of this week's budget hearings stated that the Police Department is looking at the "elimination of the G4S prisoner transport service," which transfers people arrested by police to the jail for processing.

The police budget hearing is at 8 a.m. Friday in the main conference room at El Paso City Hall.

On March 8, 2013, bodybuilder Daniel Saenz was fatally shot with his hands cuffed behind his back during a struggle with police Officer Jose Flores and an unnamed civilian prisoner transport guard. A grand jury declined to indict Flores, whose lawyer said that the handgun was fired accidentally when he was bumped.

Jail security camera footage of the shooting received national attention last month after the city released the video in response to an El Paso Times open records request.

Deputy City Manager David Almonte said that the Saenz shooting was a factor in reviewing the contract with G4S, an international security services company. "We were looking at it already, but that situation, yes, made us try to speed up that evaluation," Almonte said.

Almonte recently said that city staff will look at whether the service is effective and whether it is cost effective. The service effectiveness could be measured by looking at transportation times, number of transports and if it has helped save time and resources for police.

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"We are looking at maybe a possible alternative," Almonte said. "We have to evaluate them, so I told (staff) to put it down on paper, lets look at it, quantify it."

A 2011 study by MGT of America found that El Paso police were spending too much time booking prisoners and recommended that the department contract out prisoner services to save time and money.

During a City Council presentation in July 2012, Police Chief Greg Allen said that a pilot program would save the equivalent in time of 10 full-time employees at each of the two police regional commands, freeing officers from administrative duties to respond to calls for help.

In August 2012, City Council approved a $600,000 pilot program with G4S to transport prisoners at the Pebble Hills and Mission Valley police regional commands. An analysis found that the pilot program resulted in saving officers two hours per arrest on average, according to city documents.

Last September, the council unanimously approved a $1.3 million one-year contract that expanded the program to all five regional commands, documents stated. The citywide program was projected to save the time equivalent to 18 full-time officers.

When a person is arrested, they are handed over to a G4S crew — made up of two booking officers — at each police station. Two G4S transport teams also travel around the city taking prisoners to be booked in the Downtown Jail or the jail annex on Montana Avenue.

Police officials did not respond to a request for comment regarding the G4S contract.

"G4S is working with EPPD to identify opportunities to reduce cost while maintaining the operational effectiveness and integrity of the G4S services provided," company spokeswoman Monica Lewman-Garcia said in an email. "By using G4S Custom Protection Officers to perform supplementary duties, local law enforcement agencies like El Paso are able to make better use of their budgets and place sworn officers in more public-focused, critical law enforcement roles. In many cases, local police departments can save taxpayers millions of dollars per year by using G4S personnel and services in addition to increasing police presence in the community."

The family of Saenz has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the city and G4S on allegations of excessive force, recklessness, negligence and violating Saenz's civil rights. The lawsuit also names as defendants Allen, Flores and the unnamed prison transport guard. The lawsuit does not specify an amount sought.

The city has declined to comment on the lawsuit.

G4S did not comment on the lawsuit but Lewman-Garcia said, "G4S extends its sympathy to the family of Mr. Saenz. G4S has cooperated fully with authorities in their investigation of the 2013 incident involving Mr. Saenz."

Daniel Borunda may be reached at 546-6102. Times reporter Cindy Ramirez contributed to this report.